BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2562
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2562 (Fong) - As Amended: April 24, 2014
SUBJECT : Elections.
SUMMARY : Makes various minor and technical changes to
provisions of law governing elections. Specifically, this bill :
1)Clarifies that the number of signatures needed on a petition
to require a special election to fill a vacancy in a trustee
area on a school or community college district board is based
on the number of registered voters in the trustee area, rather
than on the number of registered voters in the entire school
or community college district.
2)Specifies that an incomplete or inaccurate apartment or unit
number in the residence address of a signer of an election
petition or paper shall not invalidate that person's
signature.
3)Makes various conforming changes to provisions of law
governing the voter registration process to reflect the
existence of online voter registration.
4)Deletes a requirement for county elections officials to submit
an annual report to the Secretary of State (SOS) detailing
information about district elections held in the county.
5)Corrects various erroneous cross-references in the Elections
Code.
6)Makes other technical and conforming changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Permits a school district or community college district board
to fill a vacancy on the board by calling a special election
or by making a provisional appointment. Provides that if the
board makes a provisional appointment, registered voters may
petition for a special election to be held to fill the
vacancy, and provides that the number of signatures needed on
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the petition in order to require a special election to be held
is based on the number of registered voters in the district.
2)Requires a voter who is signing an initiative, referendum,
recall, nomination, or other election petition or paper, to
personally affix his or her signature, printed name, and place
of residence on the petition or paper. Provides that if the
residence address on the petition or paper does not match the
residence address on the voter's affidavit of registration,
the signature on the paper or petition shall not be counted as
valid.
3)Provides that a person who is qualified to register to vote
and who has a valid California driver's license or state
identification card may submit an affidavit of voter
registration electronically on the SOS's website. Provides
that an affidavit submitted on the SOS's website is effective
upon receipt of the affidavit by the SOS if the affidavit is
received on or before the last day to register for an election
to be held in the precinct of the person submitting the
affidavit.
4)Requires county elections officials to file a statement
containing all of the following information not later than
December 31 of each year for each district election in the
county held pursuant to specified provisions of law:
a) The list of offices to be filled;
b) The name of each candidate, including occupational
designation, if any;
c) The name of each successful candidate;
d) The number of voters eligible to vote in the district
and, if voting is by division, the number of voters
eligible to vote in each division;
e) The number of votes for each candidate; and,
f) The list of offices for which appointments have been
made in lieu of election pursuant to specified provisions
of law, together with the names of the persons so
appointed.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author, "This elections
omnibus bill contains various minor and technical changes to
provisions of the Elections Code. All of the provisions of
this bill are either changes requested by the California
Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) or the
Secretary of State, or are technical changes identified and
suggested by Elections & Redistricting Committee staff."
2)School & Community College District Vacancies : Under existing
law, when a vacancy occurs on the board of a school district
or community college district, the board has two options for
filling that vacancy. The board can either call a special
election to fill the vacancy, or the board can make a
provisional appointment to fill the vacancy. If the board
chooses to make a provisional appointment, voters in the
district have the ability to require a special election to be
held to fill the vacancy by submitting a specified number of
signatures on a petition. The number of signatures needed is
based on the number of registered voters in the district.
The law concerning the number of signatures needed to force a
special election is ambiguous, however, in cases where board
members are elected from trustee areas, rather than being
elected at-large. In this situation, it is unclear whether
the number of signatures needed to force a special election is
based on the number of registered voters in the entire school
or community college district, or if it is based on the number
of registered voters in the trustee area in question.
Similarly, it is unclear whether the petition may be signed by
any voter in the school or community college district, or
whether the petition may be signed only by voters who are
registered within the trustee area.
This bill clarifies that the number of signatures needed is
based on the number of registered voters in the trustee area,
and only registered voters in the trustee area may sign a
petition to demand a special election. This provision was
requested by CACEO, and is found in Section 1 of the bill
(Section 5091 of the Education Code).
3)Apartment Numbers on Petitions : When a voter signs an
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election petition or paper, including nomination papers and
initiative, referendum, and recall petitions, the voter is
required to provide his or her address. A voter's signature
is not counted as valid if the address on the petition or
paper does not match the address on the voter's affidavit of
registration. Voters who live in apartments often omit their
apartment number, or transpose numbers in the apartment
number, when writing their address on a petition. Existing
law does not explicitly address whether an incorrect or
missing apartment number should disqualify a signature on an
election paper or petition, but many elections officials count
such signatures as valid if the street address for the voter
is correct and the voter's signature on the petition or paper
matches the signature on the voter's registration record.
This bill specifies that an incomplete or inaccurate apartment
or unit number in the residence address of a signer on an
election petition or paper shall not invalidate that person's
signature. These provisions were requested by CACEO, and are
found in Sections 2, 3, 4, and 9 of the bill (Sections 100,
105, and 9020 of the Elections Code).
4)Online Voter Registration : In 2012, the SOS launched a system
that permits California voters to register to vote on the
SOS's website, pursuant to legislation previously approved by
the Legislature and Governor (SB 381 (Ron Calderon), Chapter
613, Statutes of 2008 and SB 397 (Yee), Chapter 561, Statutes
of 2011). Since the launch of the online voter registration
system, it has come to light that sections of the Elections
Code that describe processes related to voter registration do
not reference the existence of the electronic application.
This bill makes various non-substantive changes to provisions
of law governing the voter registration process to recognize
the existence of online voter registration. These provisions
were requested by the SOS, and are found in Sections 5, 6, 7,
and 8 of the bill (Sections 2102 and 2107 of the Elections
Code).
5)District Elections Report : The Uniform District Election Law
(UDEL) was first enacted through the passage of AB 1892
(Porter, et al.), Chapter 2019, Statutes of 1965, in an
attempt to consolidate and standardize election procedures for
various districts in the state. UDEL initially applied only
to water districts, but subsequent legislation made UDEL
applicable to various other districts in the state, and made
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changes to the UDEL procedures to address problems and
technical difficulties that arose during the first elections
conducted under UDEL. One such piece of legislation-AB 605
(Porter), Chapter 268, Statutes of 1968-added a requirement
for county elections officials to file an annual report with
the SOS detailing certain information about elections held in
the county under UDEL. The legislative history available on
AB 605 does not indicate the purpose of requiring those
reports, though the reports may have been helpful tools after
the first few elections conducted using UDEL in determining
which districts were conducting elections under that law, and
in evaluating whether changes to the law might be warranted.
In any case, regardless of the original purpose of this
reporting requirement, elections officials suggest that the
reporting requirement has outlived its usefulness, that the
reports take a significant amount of staff time and resources
to prepare, and that the completed reports that are submitted
to the SOS are filed away by the SOS and are not regularly
reviewed or otherwise used for any specific purpose. This
bill repeals that reporting requirement. This provision was
requested by CACEO, and is found in Section 10 of the bill
(Section 10552 of the Elections Code).
6)Outdated & Erroneous Cross References : Last year, the
Legislature approved and the Governor signed SB 360 (Padilla),
Chapter 602, Statutes of 2013, which overhauled and
reorganized procedures and criteria for the certification and
approval of a voting system. Among other provisions, SB 360
moved the definitions of certain terms from Section 19251 of
the Elections Code to Section 19271 of the Elections Code, but
that bill failed to update three cross-references in the
Elections Code to the section containing those definitions.
This bill updates those outdated cross-references. These
cross-reference corrections were identified by Assembly
Elections & Redistricting Committee staff, and are found in
Sections 12, 13, and 14 of the bill (Sections 14300, 17301,
and 17302 of the Elections Code).
In 1994, the Legislature reorganized the Elections Code through
the passage of SB 1547 (Elections and Reapportionment
Committee), Chapter 920, Statutes of 1994. That bill was
intended to be non-substantive, rearranging the Elections Code
into a more logical and manageable format. The same year, AB
2219 (Horcher), Chapter 79, Statutes of 1994, eliminated
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certain recall procedures that applied to recalls against city
officers, and instead made city recalls subject to the same
provisions of law that applied to recalls against all other
public officers. Pursuant to the terms of the reorganization
bill, the language from AB 2219 took effect and prevailed over
the changes proposed to the same code sections in the
reorganization bill. However, a cross-reference to the city
recall procedures was not updated in AB 2219, and so that
cross-reference remained in the law as a part of the
reorganization of the Elections Code. This bill updates that
erroneous cross-reference. This cross-reference correction
was requested by CACEO, and is found in Section 11 of the bill
(Section 11302 of the Elections Code).
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Secretary of State Debra Bowen
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094